Thomas Paine and the Promise of America (Hardcover)

by Harvey J. Kaye (Author) "On January 10, 1776, Common Sense, an unsigned forty-seven-page pamphlet, appeared in Philadelphia and redefined what the American colonists were fighting for..." (more)
Key Phrases: exceptional purpose, winter soldiers, revolutionary heritage, United States, Thomas Paine, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Kaye offers a masterful and eloquent study of the man he reestablishes as the key figure in the American Revolution and the radical politics that followed it. Focusing on close readings of Paine's major writings, Kaye devotes the first half of the book to Paine's role in the seething fervor for American liberty and independence and his influence on the French Revolution. In Common Sense (1763), which sold 150,000 copies in just a few months, Paine advocated self-government and democracy in the colonies, accused the British of corruption and tyranny, and urged "Americans" to rebel. He championed representative democracy and argued that government should act for the public good. Paine's contributions were not limited to his own time; Kaye traces Paine's influence on American rebels and reformers from William Lloyd Garrison and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Emma Goldman and Eugene Debs in the second half of his book. In 1980, Ronald Reagan quoted him—"We have it in our power to begin the world over again"—in his acceptance speech before the Republican National Convention. As historian Kaye (The American Radical) points out, Paine—"the greatest radical of a radical age"—would have been surprised to learn that conservatives, whose values he opposed, had used his words in their cause. 25 illus. not seen by PW. (Aug.)
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From Booklist
Facing a saturated market for biographies of Thomas Paine, historian Kaye opts to chronicle the effect of his legacy. Reading like a roll call of populists, reformers, and radicals, Kaye's presentation aims to repossess Paine from conservatives who "do not--and truly cannot--embrace him and his arguments." Kaye's audience may measure the assertion against the preliminary passages of this work, which outline Paine's life and paraphrase his revolutionary classics (Common Sense, The American Crisis, and The Age of Reason). Underscoring Paine's championing of exceptionalism, the idea of America's uniqueness in world history (which has conservative roots in Puritanism as well as in the radicalism espoused by Paine and preferred by Kaye), the author recounts Paine revivals that have coincided with reform movements. For a universalistic reach beyond a movement's immediate aims, Paine has been ready-made, and Kaye summarizes how Paine has inspired abolitionists, suffragettes, workingmen, socialists of the Progressive and New Deal eras, and historians. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Hill and Wang (July 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080908970X
• ISBN-13: 978-0809089703
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #523,356 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Controversial Founding Father, November 8, 2005

By	R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The astonishing revolution that brought forth the American republic seems an unending source of curiosity; in the past year there has been one book after another about the American Revolution itself or about the Founding Fathers who eventually brought a Constitution to cap the Revolution's success. Perhaps we will never tire of examining the start of our nation. Perhaps, as Tom Paine himself wrote, even now "It is yet too soon to write the history of the Revolution." Paine himself has been written out of the Revolution many times by those who could not stand his political or religious principles, but as Harvey J. Kaye shows in _Thomas Paine and the Promise of America_ (Hill and Wang), Paine's authentically radical voice was not only an essential spark to unite the colonists against Britain, but also provided a legacy of inspiration to reformers in the succeeding two centuries.

Kaye's book encompasses two parts, one a brisk biography of Paine, and then a biography of Paine's posthumous life within American history and ideas. It was only in 1774 that Paine, upon the recommendation of Benjamin Franklin, crossed the Atlantic to Philadelphia. He was 38 years old, and quickly became a journal editor. He wrote _Common Sense_ anonymously, exhorting his countrymen not only to independence, but to republicanism. He formulated his arguments so that everyone could understand them, and everyone did; _Common Sense_ united and inspired the colonists to a new American cause. He became involved in politics again in France with the storming of the Bastille. He wrote _The Rights of Man_ which exhorted both Frenchmen and Americans to ensure revolutions so complete that slavery would be ended, women would be equals, peace would be enforced by a global union of republics, and church and state would be completely separated. _The Age of Reason_ was his assault on scripture and organized religion as mythologies imposed on humanity by clerics "to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." He scorned the Bible for its cruelty and its lack of morality, leading antagonists for centuries to berate Paine as an atheist. He was, however, like many of the most famous of the founders, a deist, but he was one who put into book form his distrust of the general religion of his society.

The religious controversy has continued and has been kept alive both by the freethinkers who have claimed Paine as their own and by Christians who not content with hating the facts of Paine's life made up scurrilous lying biographies about him and false legends such as the one about his deathbed recantation of his disbelief. Teddy Roosevelt called him a "filthy little atheist", but he was none of those three. His lack of conventional religious belief has colored how his countrymen have perceived him ever since. Mark Twain and Herman Melville admired him; Lincoln avidly read _The Age of Reason_ and may well have written a deist treatise of his own, but his friends ensured no one else ever saw it. Franklin Roosevelt was the first president since Jefferson to quote Paine by name, in a wartime radio address that included Paine's famous "These are the times that try men's souls" passage. Even President Reagan in his turn was able to quote Paine, but the radicals on the left are the ones who always admired Paine's convictions. A key story here is about the communist Howard Fast, who in 1943 published the historical novel _Citizen Tom Paine_. Paine was thus drawn into the witch hunts, and when Fast was summoned before Congress and refused to name names, he was put into jail in 1950. His book was removed from the public school libraries of New York City, and J. Edgar Hoover sent agents to major libraries instructing them to remove and destroy Fast's works. It was the sort of oppression Paine would have recognized and abhorred. Kaye's book successfully charts the development of Paine's ideas during his life, and the utility and appropriations of his ideas even into our own times.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful read., November 4, 2005

By	Lucia (New York) - See all my reviews

What a great book! It starts out with a nice history of Paine's work during the early years of our Country. Then it follows the influence of his work up to present time. The second part does get tedious at times but the book is still worth reading. Well written, well researched, passionate whether you agree with the interpretation or not. NOT A GOOD BOOK FOR FANS OF CONSERVATIVE TALK RADIO :)

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important book, fine writer, good history, September 15, 2005

By	Kenneth Burchell "Historian/Antiquarian scholar" (Pacific Northwest, North America) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Kaye's biographical narrative of Paine's life, which comprises the first half of this work, is the best currently in print. Past errors and mischaracterizations are corrected and Paine's extraordinary revolutionary career is accurately surveyed in an easily read, well-cited, and very accessible text. The second half of Kaye's work traces the political and social influences of Paine and his "paineite" disciples from the latter half of the 19th century to the present time. Featured prominently are the many activists in women's suffrage, black abolition, labor reform, land reform,and civil rights who have invoked Paine's ideology of democratic reform. From "Red" Emma Goldman to "Far Right" Ronald Reagan, Americans have invoked Paine's name and claimed his legacy. Kaye recounts them all and, in the process, reminds America and the world of Paine's great contributions to the history of individual liberty, justice, and equality.